Political Theory – Growth and Evolution

Political theory is a prominent part of Political Science and is also regarded as a separate branch. There is some confusion about Political theory, as many people confuse it with Political philosophy, but both are very different. Political philosophy stands for ‘thought about thought,’ and political theory is a conceptual scheme of functional relationships between two political variables or phenomena.

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Political Theory

The theory originated from the Greek word ‘theoria’ which means focused mental contemplation at something to understand it or have an in-depth look and Political theory is the conceptual scheme through which functional relationships between two or more political variables are established. Generally, a theory aims at arriving generalized statement about political facts. In the case of Political Theory, the level of generality may differ from each other but its conclusion is the same as in other.

Nature of Political Theory

There are various debates about the nature of Political theory as many believe that Political Theory is philosophy, some say it is science and there is another school of thought which still believes that Political theory is part of History. But in actuality, Political theory has all these aspects. So, Political theory is partly history, partly philosophy, and partly science. Many scholars like George Sabine view political theory as history because political theory tests its paradigm and hypothesis through history.

But all history is not Political theory and similarly, all political theory is not history. Philosophy helps in understanding the nature of things while explaining the phenomenon that occurs. There are many political thinkers and political scientists who consider Political theory as science. They view and study the political theory on the line of natural sciences but in actuality, the political theory cannot be studied on the line of natural sciences.

Growth and Evaluation of Political Theory

 The Political Theory evolved with time and went through many ups and downs. From ancient times to post-modernism, political theory has continuously evolved. The growth and evolution of political theory can be traced in three phases; Classical political theory, modern political theory, and contemporary political theory.

Classical Political Theory’s origin can be traced back to the ancient Greek culture (Plato and Aristotle) and to some extent Chanakya in ancient India. This theory aims at gathering reliable knowledge about matters concerning people, it is the basic unit of analysis of the polity as a whole, visionary in a sense, puts on comparative studies with in-depth analysis, emphasizes the order, balance, stability, and harmony.

The Modern political theory includes an array of trends, streams of thought, and schools of thought such as positivistic, empiricism, structural-functional, behavioral, and other related theories. This has been the dominant theory of the 20^th century and is mainly categorized into two streams; Liberal and Marxist. The Modern political theory is modern in the true sense as it is based on objectivity, and scientific analysis and is process-oriented.

Contemporary Political Theory deals with the comprehension, explanation, and investigation of the political concepts, principles, and institutions. This theory is concerned with philosophy, empiricism-analytics, and strategy to provide an assessment of the feasibility of moving from where we are to where we might like to be.

Thus, the study of political theory is very important as it can help us better understand the State, Power, and Man.